Black succeeds in moving 6th District far to the right

Oct. 2, 2012

Written by

Paul C. Barton

Gannett Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — To say Rep. Diane Black moved the needle when she won Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District seat in 2010 borders on serious understatement.

The National Journal, a magazine devoted to politics and public policy, rated her predecessor, former Democratic Rep. Bart Gordon, as only more conservative than 38 percent of other House members on votes in 2010.

In contrast, the 2011 votes of Black, R-Gallatin, garnered a conservative ranking of 94 percent, a 56-point shift toward the right of the political spectrum.

She tied with nine other lawmakers in the magazine’s analysis for most conservative House member. It also named her one of four sophomores to watch in the 113th Congress, should she get re-elected Nov. 6. Despite being a freshman, Black lassoed two key committee assignments — Ways and Means (tax issues) and House Budget.

As she runs for a second term against a Green Party member and an independent — with no Democrat in the race — Black, 61, speaks as if she has no intention of backsliding.

“Every time I can vote to cut a single penny (from government spending) I am going to do it,” she said in an interview.

And she follows up by declaring, “I’m opposed to any tax increases, period.”

Such words are exactly what Washington’s conservative community wants to hear from the 87 new Republicans who came to Capitol Hill in January 2011 as part of the tea party class.

Their mandate to trim the size of government and make Washington live within its means is far from accomplished, contend groups such as Freedom Works and the Club for Growth.

Critics, meanwhile, say Black and the other new Republicans brought an ideological rigidity to Capitol Hill that has made dealing with the nation’s problems, especially debt and deficit issues, that much harder.

Black, a nurse for 40 years, voted with her party 98 percent of the time in 2011, according to Congressional Quarterly. Meanwhile, research recently published by the University of Georgia ranks the 112th Congress as the most politically polarized since Reconstruction.

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But the view of the 2011 freshman class as one that rejects compromise and bipartisanship is misleading, she contends.

“When it’s talked about that way it’s to distract you,” Black said.

She pointed to aspects of GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan’s budget that enjoyed bipartisan support in the past. One of those ideas, she said, is “premium-support payments” or vouchers to help seniors find coverage from private insurers, an idea adopted by a bipartisan federal commission on Medicare in the 1990s chaired by former Sen. John Breaux, D-La.

Bipartisanship aside, Black has found she can’t even placate all conservatives, despite her voting patterns.

Erick Erickson of the website RedState.com favored her opponent, Lou Ann Zelenik, in the Aug. 2 primary, and the American Conservative Union has faulted her for several votes, including her support of the August 2011 deal that raised the debt ceiling.

Black, when asked about the debt-ceiling deal, points to the part of it that called for $1.2 trillion in federal spending cuts.

“I don’t regret voting to cut a trillion dollars from the budget,” she said.

Black has also been an ardent conservative on social issues. The first bill she introduced in January 2011 was to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood.

“It is my hallmark,” she said. “I will continue to fight for life.”

One of Black’s opponents on the Nov. 6 ballot, independent Scott Beasley, says he admires the incumbent’s tenacity on budget issues but feels he could be even more tenacious.

“She is one of the best ones in Congress,” said the 42-year-old UPS deliveryman from Cedar Hill, adding that he would have picked another incumbent to run against if he could have.

But despite the sound and fury of the 112th Congress on budget issues, Beasley said, “We’re not even touching the principal (of the national debt).”

He said he would have voted against the 2011 debt-ceiling deal as well as recent legislation to help find jobs for returning veterans. The latter died in August when Senate Republicans blocked it.

“There is a lot of game-playing going on,” he said of how lawmakers propose to pay for new programs.

Meanwhile, the other person in the race, Green Party candidate Pat Riley of Lancaster, a 46-year-house broker and singer-songwriter, said he is running on the ideas of Libertarian Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

Not only does he want to cut the size of government, Riley said he also wants to do away with the Internal Revenue Service, institute a flat tax and bring home troops from overseas instead of “trying to police the world.”

Of Black, he said, “I really don’t know much about her. I just know she has a lot of money.”

Then, Riley added, “She hasn’t created a big revolution.”

If elected, Riley said he would only serve one two-year term.

“I’m going to fight for middle America to have health and prosperity with the rest of the world,” he said, adding, “We need radicals.”